1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for improved scroll mouse operation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for suppressing one or more initial scroll commands that are received from a computer mouse whose scroll ring is configured to double as a middle mouse button.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer mice have revolutionized the user interface experience between a user and a computer system. Before computer mice, a user was required to type in each command, or depress a computer's keyboard arrow keys to navigate around a computer screen. Since the inception of computer mice, a user is able to easily navigate around a computer screen.
Technology advancements allow a user to purchase a computer mouse with optical and wireless technology. In addition, scroll mice are available that incorporate a “scroll ring” into the mouse. Besides using the scroll ring to scroll up and down a page of data on a computer screen, the scroll ring may also be configured for other tasks. For example, in some applications, a user may depress the “Control” key on a keyboard and move the scroll ring in order to zoom in or zoom out of a document. Furthermore, a user may configure the scroll ring to function as a middle mouse button. In this case, a user depresses the scroll ring in order to activate a pre-configured middle mouse button function, such as “selecting an item.”
A challenge found with operating a scroll ring as a middle mouse button, however, is that when a user attempts to depress the scroll ring, the user may inadvertently move the scroll ring forward or backward, causing scroll movements prior to processing the middle button function. When this occurs, a computer system may “mis-select” an object due to the inadvertent scroll movement. For example, when browsing the Internet, the middle mouse button may open a web page in a new window when the mouse's pointer is positioned over a web page link. In this example, if a user inadvertently scrolls up or down before depressing the scroll ring, the computer system may not identify the user's desired web page.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for discarding one or more initial scroll commands that are received from a computer mouse based upon particular user preferences.